Western Railway will run four trips of an unreserved weekly special train between Ahmedabad and Rajgir in Bihar during the Diwali and Chhath Puja travel period, offering an additional option for passengers unable to secure confirmed reservations on regular services.
The Ahmedabad-Rajgir train, numbered 09441 for its outward journey, is scheduled to leave Ahmedabad railway station at 11:55 pm on November 4 and November 11. It is scheduled to reach Rajgir at 6:55 am on Friday, according to the report on the railway arrangement. The return service, numbered 09442, will leave Rajgir for Ahmedabad on November 6 and November 13.
The service will operate as a completely unreserved train. Passengers will therefore be able to travel with ordinary tickets instead of depending on confirmed reserved berths. The arrangement is aimed at handling the seasonal rush created by travellers heading to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh for Diwali and Chhath Puja.
The additional service comes during a period when regular trains on routes connecting Gujarat with eastern and northern India typically face heavy demand. Long waiting lists and overcrowding at stations are among the difficulties faced by passengers travelling during the festival season, particularly workers and families returning to their home regions.
According to the report, the special train will connect important junctions across Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Its listed stops in Gujarat include Anand, Godhra and Dahod. Other important stoppages include Ratlam, Kota and Agra Fort, while Patna is among the major stops mentioned in Bihar.
The route gives the temporary service a role beyond adding train capacity from Ahmedabad. It links a major employment centre in Gujarat with cities and junctions across the corridor used by seasonal and long-distance passengers travelling towards Bihar. Because the service is unreserved, boarding and crowd management will be particularly important at the stations where demand is concentrated.
The railway administration has appealed to passengers to make use of the additional facility. It is also coordinating with security agencies for crowd control at stations during the festival travel period, the report said.
The four scheduled trips are the only services announced in the supplied report. The outward trains are scheduled for November 4 and November 11, while the return trains are scheduled for November 6 and November 13.
